Open Source Solutions

If you’re not familiar with Open Source, read this overview at the Open Source Initiative, http://www.opensource.org/. In a nutshell, Open Source is a development method that allows for collaboration among talented designers, developers and programmers, and offers shared access to source code and permits redistribution under licenses that meet the Open Source Definition. The Open Source community is truly amazing, and this development method often results in applications that surpass their commercial counterparts in quality and usability.

Some of my favorite Open Source offerings are:

OpenOffice – I use it exclusively for all of my word processing and spreadsheet needs.

jQuery – This is a fantastic JavaScript library that makes adding really cool JavaScript functionality to your websites a breeze. Check out ThickBox, which was built on the jQuery library, for a nice way to display images.